A record +1.000 audience at the Rheinland Pitch Summer Finals 2016 in buibui Bilk, Düsseldorf
The Rheinland Pitch is Germany’s largest continuously running startup pitching event since 2013. It’s a monthly startup pitching event, where regional startups in all phases are invited to apply. The selected startups (usually 7-12 per month) receive a full day of pitch coaching and help with their pitch decks for free (by me), pitching their results at the end of the day. From those pitches we select the three best to put on stage a week later, in the evening on the last Monday of the month, in front of an audience of press, media, investors, students, entrepreneurs and the general public that selects the best pitch by public voting.
When Lorenz of STARTPLATZ (right) and I started with the Rheinland Pitch back in 2013, we never imagined it would become this big
Every six months, we have a best-of-the-best finals where the winners from the last preceding months are put on an even larger stage at an even larger event. At these events we also have an expert jury that counts for 50% of the votes. We call this the Rheinland Pitch Summer & Winter Finals.
Yesterday saw the second ever Rheinland Pitch Summer Finals (the first was also spectacular). And what an incredible finals it was! A record +1.000 audience came to see three best-of-the-best regional together with one wildcard winner pitch in front of the lord mayor of Düsseldorf and a top notch jury of experts.
Yours truly moderating at the Rheinland Pitch finals
The Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf, Thomas Geisel, was in the house – opening with some choice words about why startups are important
The 3rd place went to RadBonus (left) and Rise Technologies (right) shared the 3rd place.
Share DNC took 2nd place.
And the winner was Düsseldorf’s own Volunteer World!
You can find more images from the event here. (All images by Karina Vilenskaja, ©Digitale Stadt Düsseldorf)
